Charges upgraded to murder in November shooting death

By Stephanie TaylorStaff Writer

Monday

Mar 26, 2012 at 11:48 AM

Charges have been upgraded against a man who shot and killed his wife in November. Investigators initially charged Matthew Scott Wightman, 26, with manslaughter after he told them he accidentally fired the shot that killed his wife Paige at their home in Vance.

Charges have been upgraded against a man who shot and killed his wife in November.

Investigators initially charged Matthew Scott Wightman, 26, with manslaughter after he told them he accidentally fired the shot that killed his wife Paige at their home in Vance.

A grand jury heard information about the case last week and ruled that the charges should be upgraded to murder.

According to court documents, the Wightmans were in their bedroom on Wallace Chapel Lane on the afternoon of Nov. 13. Allison Paige Crosby Wightman, 25, was lying on the bed while her husband was taking guns from the closet in preparation for hunting season.

Matthew Wightman told investigators that he jokingly aimed a hunting rifle at her face, looked through the scope and pulled the trigger without realizing that there was a round in the chamber.

His original story had been that the gun fired when he tossed it onto the bed.

Investigators with the Tuscaloosa County Metro Homicide Unit determined that there was no evidence of an argument or that Wightman had meant to harm his wife. Wightman was charged with reckless manslaughter and later released from the Tuscaloosa County Jail on a $30,000 bond.

One of the definitions of murder in the Alabama state code states that someone commits murder if “under circumstances manifesting extreme indifference to human life, he or she recklessly engages in conduct which creates a grave risk of death to a person other than himself or herself, and thereby causes the death of another person.”

A definition of manslaughter states simply that someone “recklessly causes the death of another person.”

Wightman was booked in to the Tuscaloosa County Jail on Sunday. He remained there Monday with bail set at $100,000.

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